Do you want to create a positive benefits experience for your employees? It’s not that complicated if you focus on three core areas.

Your benefits should reflect what your employees need. Companies who understand how important this is will survey employees periodically to see what should change. For example, if you have many public transit commuters, they’d probably like a break on their commuting costs by using commuter benefits.

Once you know what they want, it makes your job easier. Here are the next steps to make it a positive experience for your employees

What do you offer?

It’s critical you offer the best health insurance. Health insurance routinely ranks at the top of employee benefits surveys. And even though companies are focusing on diversifying benefit offerings, about 45 percent said in a recent survey they were not increasing the employee share of health insurance. 

If you’re competing for the best talent, something like employee health insurance costs could be the deciding factor in someone deciding on job offers.

While health insurance is essential, it’s not the only benefit employees want. More and more employees — especially younger ones — are attracted to “work perks” like student loan reimbursement initiatives and wellness programs.

Technology enhances the employee experience

Your employees are used to Amazon, Netflix and cloud-based Software-as-a-Service programs that make everything easy with just a few clicks. Those companies put a significant emphasis on user experience and you should too.

Benefits administration should use technology that makes it easy for your employees to do their research, understand your offers and enroll. You can also measure engagement with the right tech programs.

Employee control

Since you want your employees to be actively engaged in the benefits process, you should make it as easy as possible for them. They should be able to access their profile easily, research or supporting materials, comparisons, claims info, etc.

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Christina Dunn-Seru is the Human Resources Manager for Edenred Commuter Benefit Solutions. Christina’s expertise includes talent management and recruiting, organizational development, training and development and leadership and management coaching.  Christina is passionate about helping the organization retain and attract top talent as well as performance management for the organization.  Christina holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Providence College in addition to a Graduate Certificate in Human Resources Management from Northeastern University. Additionally, Christina also periodically collaborates with the Commuter Benefit Solutions blog.